Notre Dame football packs big economic punch, but does a winning season bring more?

When 80,000 people pushed through the gates of Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday to watch the Fighting Irish take on the Purdue Boilermakers, it marked more than just the start of the college football season in South Bend.

According to local economic assessments, those fans -- plus the thousands more who came to tailgate, sell food and merchandise or just walk on campus -- are part of a college football economic engine that generates more than $10 million in local spending each home game.

Last year, Sports Illustrated rated Notre Dame's game day experience as the fourth best in all of college football -- citing things like the school's architecture, tradition and iconic history as reasons to attend a game on campus.

But what about winning?

With 11 national championships, seven Heisman trophy winners and more than 100 All-Americans, Notre Dame has long been considered a powerhouse -- both on the field and in dollars earned -- of college football.

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But with teams struggling in recent years -- the last team to be ranked in The Associated Press' Top 10 took the field in 2006 -- it begins to raise the question: In the terms of local economic impact, is an 8-5 team (Notre Dame's record the last two years) worth less than a team with 10 or 11 wins?

To put it differently: If you aren't an Irish fan (and Michiana is full of Purdue, Indiana, Michigan and Michigan State alumni and fans who aren't) should you still cheer for the Irish, if every win means more dollars into the local economy?

The answer, it seems, depends upon whom you choose to believe.

'They're happy so they spend'

For more than 20 years, Maury Cocquyt and his Maury's Pat's Colonial Pub have built a reputation as a destination for post-game Irish festivities.

Located in Mishawaka's West End neighborhood, it's the kind of local place someone has to tell you about, the kind of place that generations have flocked to since Notre Dame coach Dan Devine began dinning there in the 1970s.

Even though his restaurant is a 15-minute drive from campus, Cocquyt doesn't doubt the economic studies that show each home game pours millions of dollars into the local economy -- between food bought at restaurants, nights at hotels, gas for the vehicles, trinkets for the kids -- he says that it's clear that the draw of Notre Dame football is felt economically in this community.

But when the team is winning and highly ranked, he said, the money flows even faster.

"I don't want to say it's apathy, but when the team has three or four losses, people lose interest, they don't spend money like they do if the team is winning," Cocquyt said.

And when the team is winning and expectations are high?

"People want to sit and eat, they order a second drink, they're happy so they spend," Cocquyt said. "After a loss, they just want to eat and leave."

But wins and losses, however, aren't as concerning to Cocquyt's and other restaurant owners' bottom lines as another issue: Starting time.

"It's the night games that hurt," Cocquyt said. "When people don't leave the stadium until 10:30 or 11, they don't want to sit down to eat a big meal."

Cocquyt said that with an early start time -- like 1:30 p.m. -- his restaurant could expect to serve as many as 250 people, sometimes with people waiting in lines out the door.

A 2:30 start time, he said, means about 160 customers; a 3:30 start about 100.

"The late start time just kills us," Cocquyt said. "When you're looking at meals at $35 a head, we're talking about a lot of money."

Prime time night games -- especially those where the team loses -- hurt the worst, Cocquyt said.

"Last year for the USC game (which started at 7:30 p.m. and Notre Dame lost 31-17) we had 21 people show up."

To combat the late starts, Cocquyt said his restaurant focuses just as much on attracting out-of-town Notre Dame fans on Friday nights.

"On Friday nights, everyone's still a winner," he said.

Two-night minimum

But if late start times hurt some restaurants, surely they help hotels -- encouraging fans to stay overnight instead of hitting the road afterward -- right?

According to one hotel manager -- who said she could not be named because her hotel's corporate owner doesn't allow employees to speak to the media -- said all football games are good for business.

"We require a two-night minimum on football weekends, and we usually sell out," she said of her hotel, located on Indiana 933, north of Notre Dame.

And football weekends typically cost at least $50 to $100 more per night than non-football weekends in the fall at most area hotels, according to prices posted on online hotel search engines.

But do prices go up as a team wins?

Yes and no.

With online reservations, most hotel rooms are booked weeks, if not months, in advance and most room rates don't fluctuate based on a team's record.

But if Notre Dame becomes ranked, or plays a highly anticipated matchup, those few remaining unbooked rooms -- or hotels in places like Elkhart and LaPorte can become hot commodities too, causing prices to escalate.